扎 (zhá): to struggle (only as the second…

Meanings

1 to struggle (only as the second syllable of 挣扎)

Characters

扎

zhá

to struggle (only as the second syllable of 挣扎)

Examples

HSK 5

鱼在网里挣扎，却逃不出来。

Yú zài wǎng lǐ zhēngzhá, què táo bù chūlái.

The fish struggled in the net but couldn't get free.

HSK 6

他们在贫困线下苦苦挣扎。

Tāmen zài pínkùnxiàn xià kǔkǔ zhēngzhá.

Living below the poverty line, they struggle daily.

Tips

register

The zhá reading exists for one purpose only: the second syllable of 挣扎 (to struggle, physically or metaphorically). You never see 扎 standalone, and no other compound uses this reading. If you see the bigram 挣扎 - read zhēngzhá. If 扎 stands alone or pairs with anything else, it's almost certainly zhā (default verb) or zā (tie / bind).

Components

radical

扌 shǒu

hand (radical form of 手)

Left-side hand radical, the side form of 手. Anchors 扎 in the manual-action family - pricking, tying, struggling are all things hands do. Same radical drives 打 (hit), 拉 (pull), 扔 (throw). Provides essentially all the meaning while the right side just suggests sound and shape.

phonetic

乚 yǐ

hidden; second (variant of 乙)

Right side is a single hooked stroke - a variant of 乙. The phonetic role is rough (yǐ → zhā, the readings drifted heavily) so today 乚 functions more as a graphic anchor than a real sound clue. Same shape ends 礼, 札, 乳.